Many smoking devices have been proposed through the years as improvements upon, or alternatives to, smoking products that require combusting tobacco for use. Many of those devices purportedly have been designed to provide the sensations associated with cigarette, cigar, or pipe smoking, but without delivering considerable quantities of incomplete combustion and pyrolysis products that result from the burning of tobacco. To this end, there have been proposed numerous smoking products, flavor generators, and medicinal inhalers that utilize electrical energy to vaporize or heat a volatile material, or attempt to provide the sensations of cigarette, cigar, or pipe smoking without burning tobacco to a significant degree. See, for example, the various alternative smoking articles, aerosol delivery devices, and heat generating sources set forth in the background art described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,726,320 to Robinson et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2013/0255702 to Griffith Jr. et al., and U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2014/0096781 to Sears et al., which are incorporated herein by reference. See also, for example, the various types of smoking articles, aerosol delivery devices, and electrically powered heat generating sources referenced by brand name and commercial source in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2015/0216232 to Bless et al., this is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Currently numerous aerosol devices are unable to produce a consistent composition of volatile substances throughout their use. In addition, the composition of volatile substances may also contain undesirable impurities originating from the volatile material vaporized in the aerosol delivery device to produce the composition of volatile substances.
It would be highly desirable to provide an electronically-powered aerosol delivery device, for example an electronic cigarette, that is capable of allowing the user thereof to draw aerosol that maintains a consistent flavor profile throughout its use and is devoid of any undesirable impurities; especially impurities which are capable of altering the flavor profile of the aerosol over time.